Google Maps now prompts users for incident confirmation

Although Google purchased Waze a few years ago and has maintained Waze as a separate navigation app from Google Maps, the company has slowly been capitalizing on the purchase by porting features over. One area where Google has remained essentially hands off was on the incident reporting available in Waze. That may be starting to erode as seen in a recent update surrounding incidents displayed in Google Maps.

The update that was rolling out last week added a feature so that users can provide confirmation regarding incidents that are displayed on Google Maps. Code for this feature was spotted in recent teardowns of the app, but now it appears Google has flipped this switch. The confirmation options are yes, no or not sure.

For those who have been patiently waiting to contribute their own incident reports via Google Maps, that functionality has not yet been added. This new feature just gives one the ability to verify whether an incident still exists. This could point the way toward Google Maps finally getting this feature from Waze, especially since Google Maps already pulls some of this incident data over from Waze.

Google’s timing is good for users as well as projections are this upcoming holiday week in the U.S. may be the busiest one ever.

Raised in North Carolina, Jeff Causey is a licensed CPA in North Carolina. Jeff's past Android devices include an HTC EVO, a Samsung Note II, an LG G3, and a Motorola Moto X Pure Edition along with a Samsung Galaxy Tablet 10.1. He currently uses a Samsung Galaxy S8 and (very rarely) a Nexus 7 (2013). He is also using a Verizon-branded Motorola Moto Z Play Droid supplied by his job. Jeff used to have a pair of Google Glass and a Moto 360 Sport in his stable of gadgets. Unfortunately, his kids have all drunk the Apple Kool-Aid and have i-devices. Life at home often includes demonstrations of the superiority of his Android based devices. In his free time, Jeff is active an active runner usually training for his next marathon, owns a Mazda MX-5 Miata, and plays Dungeons & Dragons. Jeff has three grown kids and a golden retriever.

Brian Hall

I wonder if this is (or also is) a way to counter false reports of accidents/road closures that happen when people want to reduce traffic on their local side streets.